HELP! SCRIPTING ON ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR: duplicating image into grid?

[ksino]

Hello everyone! So I design everything via Illustrator but scripting is my area of weakness... I wanted to ask if anyone could help me write a script template that would easily take my image and duplicate it into a grid. Here is an example image:

I start by taking this image and clipping it into a circle shape. From here, the script would need to do the following:

1. duplicate it into a 5x6 grid
2. export this file into .PDF format, for printing on standard letter 8.5" x 11" paper

Here is a screenshot of my grid template on Illustrator:

Here is the link to that template illustrator file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3ihpat6kbvtld8h/blank CD.ai?dl=0

Finally, here is screenshot of the desired output:

The goal is to create a script template that works so I can do this with any image on my computer. Making this grid manually for thousands of images takes WAY TOO MUCH TIME. Can anyone help? Thanks in advanced!

 

[superscape]

Hi,

That sounds like the sort of thing I do all day for a living!

It's a classic AppleScript task. I'd suggest getting a copy of Script Debugger (you can run it in trial mode for a month or so) http://latenightsw.com . It makes it a lot easier to get your head round object models, and find the commands you need.

Have a look at the "duplicate" command. Basically, you need to take a page item (or group of page items), duplicate them, then change the coords of the duplicated item.

Best way to export the PDF (in my opinion) is to set up a PDF preset in Illustrator and just call that from your script.

Hope that's enough to get you started.

Rob

ps. If you still struggle and you'd like me to code it for you get in touch with me via https://www.ghostotter.com/support/ and we can talk about custom development. Cheaper than you'd think... probably... ;-)